This week I’m chatting with environmental lawyer Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm whose tagline is “because the Earth needs a good lawyer.” Indeed, it does.

The stakes, in her words: “We could come out of this time with neither presidential authority nor congressional authority to create, and enforce strong environmental laws.”

Oof. But we are not quitters, right team? So, from from the Supreme Court, to suing the government, to Project Phoenix, to her spicy take on the whole abundance narrative, Earthlings 🌎, let’s dive in.

Abbie’s CALL TO ACTION 🗣️ Buckle up, this is an especially nerdy one: Read Supreme Court dissents in order to fire yourself up, starting with what Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had to say in Trump v. CASA, on universal injunctions and beyond.

Notes:

If you’re enjoying this podcast, help others find us — follow, rate, and review. ✅ Text the link of your favorite episode to your favorite group chat, and discuss!

This podcast is ad-free thanks to the support of Future Being, a grant making and special project studio, which supports the healing of our planet and the safeguarding of biological and cultural diversity.

This episode was produced and edited by Gabby Bulgarelli, and me, Ayana, with help from associate producer Jenisha Shrestha.

Food is a major driver of our environmental problems. It uses ~38% of Earth’s land, drives ~70% of our water use, and emits ~22-34% of our greenhouse gas pollution globally. I know it’s not popular to say it, but a lot of that impact is driven by beef and dairy.

On the one hand, agriculture is driving deforestation and warming the planet. And on the other hand, our changed climate is determining what foods we can continue to grow and where.

So, this week I’m sharing what turned out to be, notwithstanding those terrible stats I just rattled off, an utterly delightful conversation with food mega nerd Sam Kass.

Sam was Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition in the White House during the Obama administration, and he was also White House chef. He is the founder of TROVE and a partner in Acre Venture Partners. In 2012, he helped create the American Chef Corps, which is dedicated to promoting diplomacy through culinary initiatives. And he has a new book that just came out on October 7 called The Last Supper: How to Overcome the Coming Food Crisis.

This conversation, recorded live during Climate Week in NYC at an event organized by PlanetFWD, is a sneak peak into what Sam covers in the book — from what our last supper might be missing (sorry to the coffee, chocolate and wine lovers), the enormously important role of culture, stories from his time in the White House (like the organic vegetable garden he created with FL Michelle Obama), and how what we eat and how we farm can be SOLUTIONS.

And I can’t miss the chance to say that it is my fervent belief that the climate movement needs more dinner parties! So when you’re done listening, make a plan to gather with good people over nourishing food and conspire about implementing climate solutions.

Notes:

If you’re enjoying the show, please help others find us — follow, rate, review, tell your crew! ✅

This podcast is ad-free thanks to the support of Future Being, a grant making and special project studio, which supports the healing of our planet and the safeguarding of biological and cultural diversity.

Special thanks to Julia Collins and the team at PlanetFWD for hosting this live taping. This episode was produced and edited by Gabby Bulgarelli, and me, Ayana, with help from associate producer Jenisha Shrestha.

Bon appetite, Earthlings 🌎 xo

"Every single day you live you make a difference in the world, and you get to choose the difference that you make." — Jane Goodall

Last week, when I heard that Jane Goodall had died, it knocked the wind out of me. It hit me as more than a loss; it felt like the end of an era. A naturalist, a deep thinker, an expert, and so elegant, Jane's animals, of nature, set the bar for how much we each could and should devote ourselves to preserving life on Earth.

Amid the outpourings on social media this comment struck me: “I want to live in a country where the flags are flown at half mast for Jane Goodall.” YES.

In 2021, I was a guest on Jane's podcast called The Hopecast. I couldn’t let myself just be interviewed by her — how absurd for me to be the one doing all the talking when with such a luminary! — so it was a conversation.

I’m so glad to get to share her voice with you; a reflection of her abundant soft power. She titled this episode “Hope is Courage and Taking Action Together.” (Note: I do not recommend debating the value of hope with Jane Goodall!)

Video clips from this episodes are in my newsletter: ayanaelizabeth.substack.com.

Credits: Thank you to the Jane Goodall Institute for producing this original conversation, Remoy Philip for producing the version for this podcast, and assistant producer Jenisha Shrestha.

CALL TO ACTION: Support the continuation of Jane’s work by encouraging a young person or educator to get involved with her Roots & Shoots organization. There are tons of resources for organizing and action on their website. Taking action to protect and restore nature is by far the best way to honor Jane’s incredibly legacy.

Today’s guest is Jigar Shah, a clean energy entrepreneur who served as director of the Loan Program Office in the US Department of Energy during the Biden administration. Previously, he was co-founder of Generate Capital, founder of Sun Edison, and founding CEO of the Carbon War Room. Now, he’s advising clean energy companies. He’s also a devout optimist. (I know, go figure.)

I interviewed Jigar for my book What if We Get It Right? back in April of 2023. Given how much has changed in the last 2+ years — especially since the start of the Trump administration 🫠 — I wanted check in with Jigar on where things stand on the clean energy transition. (AKA, WTF?!). From critical minerals to energy justice, to geothermal and nuclear, to battery recycling and salt caverns, we got into it all, folks.

TL;DR “We need to stop chasing shiny objects and start just executing on stuff that hasn’t yet been fully deployed.” — Jigar Shah

An abridged version of this interview will be added into the paperback edition of What If We Get It Right?, which will be coming your way in time for Earth Day. 📚✨

And while you’re listening, it’s super duper helpful if you follow, rate, review, and tell your crew. ✅ Thanks!

JIGAR'S CALL TO ACTION 🗣️

“People need to get engaged civically, in their sphere of influence. I don’t care whether it’s your school board, your knitting club, your church, your city council, your county, or if you have ambitions for your state, get involved and tell people: This is what is awesome. This is where my kids are gonna find a job. This is what is going to unlock all of this clean air and clean water.

I think people just assume this technology is gonna sell itself and it’s gonna be fine. We actually need permission from the local permitting board. We need permission from the local city council.

Think about how many school districts are saying, “Ugh, we know that all the diesel fumes are hurting the kids in the school buses, but it’s just too hard to go to electric, so we’re just gonna let another generation of kids suffer from fumes from diesel and school buses.” What? That’s your official policy? No! Get to the school board meeting.

Get involved because it matters. We are in this extraordinary revolution that’s gonna be beneficial for everyone. And I think people are just like, “Yeah, it’s gonna be fun to watch from the sidelines.” No! Get in the game.”

NOTES:

If you want more from Jigar, that’s smart of you. Check out his podcast Open Circuit, and follow him on LinkedIn.

This podcast is ad-free thanks to the support of Future Being, a grant making and special project studio, which supports the healing of our planet and the safeguarding of biological and cultural diversity.

This episode was produced and edited by Gabby Bulgarelli, and me, Ayana, with help from associate producer Jenisha Shrestha.

And if you’re new here, peruse the back catalog. A few dozen hours of sweet podcast conversations with incredible guests await you. ✨

Earthlings, hello! 👋🏽 This week’s guest is Ari Matusiak, CEO of Rewiring America, a nonprofit focused on accelerating the clean energy transition.

With the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits expiring on December 31st, I wanted to sit down with Ari to talk about our energy bills, how we can still install heat pumps and more before those incentives run out, how your home could become energy infrastructure for your community. Plus, soba noodles, K-pop, and the very sexy topic of group scheduling. Hold onto your hats. This episode is going to be electrifying. ⚡️

CALL TO ACTION 🗣️ from Ari: Visit www.rewiringamerica.org/save to learn about the Save on Better Appliances (SOBA) campaign and, in Ari’s words: "Get yourself a tax credit. Get yourself an electric coach. Get yourself a contractor. And get yourself something electric at the electric store."

Notes:

Check out Rewiring America’s new report: Homegrown Energy: How household upgrades can meet 100 percent of data center demand growth.

This podcast is ad-free thanks to the support of Future Being, a grant making and special project studio, which supports the healing of our planet and the safeguarding of biological and cultural diversity.

This episode was produced and edited by Gabby Bulgarelli, and me, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, with help from associate producer Jenisha Shrestha.

If you're enjoying the show, follow, rate, review, and to help others find us.

This August marked 20 years since Hurricane Katrina, and the devastation that storm had across the Gulf South is still reverberating throughout the country. Today I’m talking with Dr. Samantha Montano, a professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy and co-founder of Disaster Researchers for Justice. She wrote a great book called Disasterology: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis.

Now, amidst a continuing string of disastrous storms and wildfires, there are massive cuts at FEMA. We are clearly getting this very wrong. So I wanted to check back in with Samantha to understand what’s really going on at FEMA under the Trump Administration 🧐 (from the horror of “Alligator Alcatraz” to dealing with cyberattacks), whether we’re more prepared for hurricanes now than we were 20 years ago (spoiler: nope!), and what we can do individually and collectively to up our preparedness game.🙋🏽‍♀️

CALLS TO ACTION from Samantha:

* ☎️ Call your member of Congress — (202) 224-3121: They don’t get many calls supporting FEMA, so this is helpful. Let them know: (1) we need funding for FEMA, (2) we need to hire more people at FEMA, (3) we need to remove FEMA from under the Dept of Homeland Security and re-establish it as a standalone agency, and (4) we need a qualified, Senate-confirmed emergency manager leading the agency.

* 👩🏽‍💻 Sign up for emergency alerts!: Absurdly, there is no centralized way to do this. So, embark on a tiny research project: google your town name + “emergency management,” and then find your county and state alerts too. This was you can be informed and ready to be a good neighbor.

* Advocate for local resources: Look into you local emergency management agency. Do they have funding? Do they have staff? Do they have a qualified person leading? Be the advocate in your community for emergency management — they don't have a lot of advocates at the local level, so this can really help.

NOTES:

If you're enjoying the show, please help others find us — follow, rate, review, and tell your crew!

Keep up with Dr. Montano's work via her Substack newsletter: Disasterology, a monthly dispatch of interesting and/or important disaster things.

This podcast is ad-free thanks to the support of Future Being. This episode was produced and edited by Gabby Bulgarelli, and me, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, with help from associate producer Jenisha Shrestha.

Alright, Earthlings 🌎 see you next week. xo

Welcome to Season 3 of the What If We Get It Right? podcast! 🥳

If you’re new here: This show is about what we need to do to address the climate crisis, and how to make those things happen. Here, we take climate change seriously but absolutely do not take ourselves seriously. We take a brutally honest look at the science, policy, economics, and culture of climate issues, and dive in on solutions and strategies that will help us create a livable future on Planet Earth.

My first guest for Season 3 is a stalwart of the climate movement. Bill McKibben is an environmentalist and journalist who, more than anyone, has proven to me the power of the pen. The words he writes have changed policies (e.g., Heat Pumps for Peace and Freedom!) and helped mobilize millions.

Bill’s got (for good reason) the most popular climate newsletter on Substack: The Crucial Years (highly recommend). And his new book, Here Comes The Sun, is an ode to the potential and necessity of massively ramping up solar energy.

Bill is founder of the non-profit Third Act, organizing his elder generation for action on climate and justice. (Join their Rocking Chair Rebellion.) They’re instigating Sun Day, the international day of action to celebrate clean energy 🥳, which will happen September 21st, the autumnal equinox. Head to sunday.earth to find an event near you.

I first met Bill when he came to Harvard to teach a climate seminar when I was an undergrad, and 25 years later, I’m so thrilled to be talking with him about the circular economy of photons, his modest proposal to make it rain solar panels, what his crew of old fogey climate activists is up to, the concept of energy liberation, and what he sees in his crystal ball.

_____

If you enjoy these conversations, follow the show, rate us, and tell all your friends. I know every podcast host says this 🫣, but given the ways algorithms etc. work, it truly is important for helping new listeners find us.

And thank you to Future Being, a grant making and special project studio that supports the healing of our planet and the safeguarding of biological and cultural diversity. Their support keeps this show ad-free. This episode was produced and edited by Gabby Bulgarelli and me, with help from associate producer Jenisha Shrestha.

If you’ve read/listened all the way to the end: There is a prize! For the first 3 people who comment on this newsletter post sharing what you found most interesting or surprising about this conversation, I will send you a copy of Bill’s book. 💌 Drop your response at: ayanaelizabeth.substack.com.

Also, I want to know: What are you going to do to celebrate Sun Day on September 21st?!?

Alright, Earthlings. 🌎 See ya next week...

Hey there Earthlings. 🌎 Season 3 is launching next week! Thus, here’s a trailer with tidbits from previous seasons to get you stoked. We’ve got a dozen ace guests booked, and 4 episodes already recorded. We’re diving all the way in — on clean energy, FEMA, farming, messaging, and so much more. I’ll be re-interviewing a few of the experts I interviewed for my book because, turns out, some things have changed in the last year. 🫠 Anyway, follow/subscribe, rate/review, share with your homies. More coming very soon...

I'm aiming to live a more analog life in August (🛶🥾🏕️), so, until September, leaving you with this summer listening: an excerpt from my audiobook, the chapter titled “Away From the Brink.” To remind you, that book (which inspired this podcast) is What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures.

This chapter is essentially my answer to the BIG question: What if we get it right? What would that look like and feel like? I hope it's appealing to you — and perhaps even sparks something in you.

If you dig it, you can listen to the whole audiobook wherever you listen to those. Or, if you prefer to consume books the old fashioned way, head over to the library or your local bookstore. Maybe you’ll find a kindred spirit in the nature aisle.

And I’ll be back in September with fresh episodes of What If We Get It Right?, plus a tour of colleges across the US. (More on that in my newsletter: ayanaelizabeth.substack.com.)

Hey there Earthlings. I’m living a more analog life this summer (highly recommend). 🛶🏕️📚 So for this week’s episode, I want to introduce you to another podcast I think you just might love.It’s called Science Vs., hosted by Wendy Zuckerman. In each episode they tackle a different topic to sort out what’s fact, what’s fiction, and what’s still TBD.

As a scientist and lover of facts, I super appreciate how Wendy and her team dig into the scientific literature, fact check everything, share their sources, and interview experts. So I think you’ll enjoy the episode “Climate Crisis: We’re Solving It?!” Their description:

“The climate is a mess. It's hot. There's fires, floods, hurricanes — and we may have even crossed some rather scary climate tipping points. But there is hope. So today, we’re answering your questions about solving the climate crisis. We find out how you can help in the fight against climate change, if carbon offsets are a scam, whether renewables really work and what exciting new technologies could help save the planet. Our guests are Dr. Sven Teske at the University of Technology, Sydney, and Wei Sue, head of strategy at Monash University's Climateworks Center.”

If you dig it, subscribe!